Ohio Brewery News
10.11.2022
Striking Gold in Denver
Ohio’s independent craft breweries returned to the medal stand at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony, held on Saturday, October 8, 2022 in Denver, earning a total of eight medals – five of them gold – at the nation’s most prestigious brewing competition.
All seven of this year’s winning breweries have previously brought awards back to the Buckeye State in prior GABF competitions, showing that our independent craft breweries are consistently turning out high-quality beer here in Ohio.
The 2022 competition judged more than 10,000 beers entered by 2,154 breweries across the country, awarding a total of 300 medals. Against a field that large, earning a medal is a major accomplishment.
Cincinnati Makes a Big Splash
Five breweries from the Queen City earned honors at this year’s competition.
- MadTree Brewing‘s Happy Amber earned a second gold medal in the Extra Special Bitter category after a prior win in 2018.
- Big Ash Brewing, coming off a 2022 World Beer Cup silver medal for Porter’s Porter, added a GABF gold to their collection for Symphony, their Vienna-Style Lager.
- Samuel Adams joined the southwest Ohio winners by scoring a gold medal for Just the Haze in the burgeoning Non-Alcohol Beer category.
- Cincinnati’s seemingly unstoppable Brink Brewing continued their medal streak with a silver for Zoomie in the Coffee Stout or Porter category. Brink has won at least one medal in each year of competition since the brewery’s founding in 2017.
- Sonder Brewing claimed a silver medal for Kato in the Coffee Beer category. This is Sonder’s second medal overall after earning a bronze for French 75 in the 2021 competition.
Fat Head’s Returns to Winning Ways
After earning at least one medal in each GABF competition from 2009 to 2020, Fat Head’s Brewery missed the medal stand in 2021. This year, the brewery looked to make up for lost time by winning two awards in the 2022 competition, bringing their overall total to a whopping 28 medals. Alpenglow won its fourth GABF gold medal in the German-style Wheat Ale category: it also has a GABF silver and a World Beer Cup gold to its name, making it the most decorated craft beer in Ohio history. Fat Head’s also earned a bronze medal for Bone Head Red in the Strong Red Ale category, the beer’s third overall honor at the competition.
Little Fish Brewing found their way back to the GABF stage this year as well, earning a gold medal for Apple Brandy Barrel Maker of Things in the Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer category. This is the second medal for the Athens brewery after scoring a silver in 2020 for Cleft in the Fruited Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer category.